American scientists have been able to beat down syndrome

American scientists, it seems, found a way of dealing with down syndrome. Experts from the University of Massachusetts, made a discovery that will help in the development of modern methods of treatment of this genetic disease, which at the moment is considered incurable.

Down syndrome is a genetic abnormality associated with trisomy of the 21st chromosome. In a healthy person in chromosome consists of two chromosomes, and in patients with syndrome - three. The syndrome was opened in 1866 and since then extensively studied. It is now known that the disease has a number of traits: flat face, large tongue, small nose, the lag in development from his peers, infertility and early mortality associated pathologies of internal organs.

About a month ago, American scientists announced to the world that found a way to stop the development of the chromosome that causes the syndrome. This method got its name - "the drug in a Petri dish". The method disables the abnormal X chromosome, which causes various defects: both external and internal, life-shortening.

The essence of the method lies in the use of pluripotent stem cells. These cells are able to differentiate into all cell types of the body. Found XIST gene, which is located in one of the X chromosomes is turned off, stopping the development of down syndrome.

This discovery is only the start in the development of new methods of treatment of such a terrible and common genetic pathology. In the future, the scientists plan to develop a revolutionary treatments for the disease. However, it may take tens of years.

Oh, we almost forgot. You may also be interested in the following posts: